Pop Quiz: Gaming

Angry Birds, Lego Star Wars, FIFA Soccer, Grand Theft Auto. These are just a few of the thousands of iPad games that I’ve noticed on the screens of my students during class time. My school has been a 1 to 1 computing school for nearly a decade, but recently it has made the move to iPads instead of laptop computers. Now, gaming was certainly a problem with laptop computers, but with iPads the general consensus among the faculty is that gaming is worse than ever on campus.

With the iPads, it is actually easier to detect when students are gaming as opposed to those gaming on a laptop. In general, most iPad games require you to move the iPad like some sort of joystick or steering wheel. Its pretty obvious when students are holding the iPad up and turning it wildly as if they are in some sort of police chase, while everybody else is taking notes.

No matter how many times I tell them not to game in my classroom, gaming continues. I’ll give them detention, embarrass them in front of their classmates, make them stay after class, but nothing seems to stop gaming. My questions to all of you out there is…

Whether its on a smartphone, iPad, laptop, or even tic tac toe on a piece of scratch paper, how do you deal with gaming in your classroom?

The Pop Quiz is a question posed to you, the Scholars of Doubt. Look for it on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the afternoon (ET).